COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

As a member of the Indian River County Commission, Bob Solari will have an opportunity next Tuesday to at least attempt to persuade his fellow commissioners to help Vero Beach mitigate the consequences of a poor decision made when he was a member of the Vero Beach City Council.

In 2005, when the City Council had the bright idea to purchase the old Dodgertown golf course property for a whopping $10 million, then councilman Bob Solari’s fingerprints were all over the deal.  As late last year, Solari was quoted in a press report insisting the purchase was a good move.

Not only did Solari and his fellow council members at the time participate in the collective insanity that was the real estate bubble of 2005, they essentially handcuffed future City Council’s by unilaterally placing deed restrictions on the property limiting its use to a golf course or green space, while at the same time committing gas tax revenues that could otherwise be used to maintain city streets.

Today, the land is likely worth no more than half what Solari and company paid for it, yet the City is now burdened with annual loan payments of no less than $660,000 a year through 2025.  All the while, road maintenance is being deferred.

To stop the bleeding, and to free up revenue needed to install more storm water filtration systems, the City is seeking the County Commission’s permission to lift the deed restriction on the old Dodgertown golf course property so the land can be sold, even at a loss.

With their noses bend way out of joint over a recent public records request made of the County by the city’s special counsel, the Commission may be set to tell the City to take a hike. The matter is to be discussed and possibly decided at next Tuesday’s County Commission meeting.

In asking the Florida Public Service Commission to assist them in taking Vero Beach’s electric customs and utility infrastructure without compensation, the members of the County Commission have proven just how foreign to them is the concept of win-win. Let’s hope they don’t underscore next Tuesday just how small-minded they can be.